Luke 10 Leadership: How to Succeed at Parish Ministry

With more than four decades of experience in ministry, Rev. Dave Heney has created a proven method that offers you the confidence and skills you need to serve as Jesus served. In Luke 10 Leadership, Heney shares his four-step, bible-based plan for effective parish ministry. He builds on four simple directives from Jesus found in Luke’s gospel and shows you how to build trusting relationships, embrace the culture of your parish, tend to the wounded, and speak the Good News in ways that your flock can understand.

In Luke 10:5-9, Jesus instructs seventy-two of his disciples how to go about their ministry. He tells them to: speak peace; eat and drink whatever is set before them; cure the sick; and announce to the people that the kingdom is at hand. Rev. Dave Heney, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, translates these biblical instructions into a primer for today’s ministry leaders. Heney breaks Jesus’ teaching into four foundational pastoral skills:

building trusting relationships

understanding the local culture

tending to the wounded

speaking the Good News in language that fits the local culture

Heney shows leaders—clergy and lay, paid and volunteer—how to get started in a new leadership position or give an existing role a new direction.  He offers practical tips for growing leadership skills and implementing pastoral strategies in areas such as communication, planning, organization, and change.

Leadership in Catholic parishes varies greatly from place to place. But no matter what your particular setting is—whether you are just beginning your ministry or starting out in a new place—this primer of pastoral skills and strategies offers simple, challenging, and transformative lessons for you.